


Parts of Me That You've Seen

by Kainony



Series: Alley No. 9 [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Genderbending, Girl Baekhyun, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Romance, Romance if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 23:26:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15918393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kainony/pseuds/Kainony
Summary: It's been six days since Baekhyun has seen Chanyeol.





	Parts of Me That You've Seen

Baekhyun leans against a tall brick wall fidgeting as she tries to calm her nerves. Her forearms burn from the stress of the package she’s holding, but she doesn’t want to put it on the ground. The number on the iron gate says 1485 and she checks it again. She even checks the street name twice and it’s correct. This is Chanyeol’s house. She can see it through the holes in the gate and it’s intimidating to say the least. Baekhyun had never seen such a large house before except on TV. She bounces up and down waiting for someone to answer the door and after a few moments turns to leave almost relieved no one is in sight, but then Chanyeol’s voice comes hesitant through the intercom.

“Who is it,” he says. His voice sounds tired and ragged.

“..it’s me. Baekhyun. I was just worried and–” the buzzer interrupts her explanation and the gate clicks open. 

Baek steps in through the gate unsure if she should head to the house. It looms a good distance aways up a stone path with stairs framed by large trees. Their leaves are changing colors and they shimmer against the garden lights. Everything about Chanyeol’s house is large, foreign, and immaculate. Baekhyun sees Chanyeol’s silouhette at the front door in a hoodie with his head low and his hands in his pockets. He motions for Baek to come and greets her with a small squeeze of her arm leading her inside.

Baek shuffles behind Chanyeol hesitantly in slippers twice her shoe size. She feels small and out of place and she wonders why she thought it would be a good idea to go find Chanyeol when he obviously hadn’t made himself available. Chanyeol looks tired even from the back. His gait is slow and his shoulders slumped forward.

“Have a seat,” Chanyeol says motioning Baek into the sitting room off the front hall. “Would you like something to drink? We have...water.”

Baek sits down hesitantly holding the carefully wrapped package on her lap. “No thank you, I’m ok,” she replies in a small voice. She’s not used to formalities with Chanyeol so she sits awkwardly, still in her coat, just at the edge of the couch.

Chanyeol won’t look her in the eye. He’s standing awkwardly by the sofa across from Baek with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie so Baekhyun feels she should explain why she’s there.

“I brought some food for you...” Baek says, but there’s no response.

“I thought maybe you were sick since you didn’t come to class or the bar and you weren’t answering your phone...” Baekhyun’s voice fades to a whisper at the sound of voices yelling in the background. _I shouldn’t be here_ she thinks worriedly.

“Is this all you can do? Huh? Hold on to your pride while we lose everything?!” It’s a woman’s voice and it’s comes out shrill and high pitched even through the walls. 

“What do you want me to do? You act like I’m not even trying! This is just like you, not even acknowledging my effort! You–”

“What effort?! Do you think that matters now? You’re right nobody cares about your effort not in this house and not at work. Thats not–”

“Kang Minah!” Baekhyun figures that other booming voice belongs to Chanyeol’s father. It must be where Chanyeol gets his own deep timbre from. She can’t look at Chanyeol even when the yelling seems to stop abruptly, but the silence is just as loud.

–Baekhyun’s eyes go wide at the sound of _s_ omething breaking and splintering in the distance followed by the rapid sound of approaching feet.

“No, no, no, nooooo!” comes what must be Chanyeol’s mom’s voice.

Baekhyun’s head snaps up and Chanyeol grabs her arm dragging her through a door on the left. He closes it behind him slowly and motions with one finger against his lips for her to stay quiet. He turns back to look through the crack off the door to see his parents fighting. His mother is crying and his father is stalking around the room. Baekhyun can only hear the yelling until Chanyeol slumps against the kitchen counter and she catches a glance of his parents dressed in their sleep clothes gesturing wildly and screaming. She quickly looks away sensing that this is something she should not see. Chanyeol is still holding her arm like an anchor.

“Come with me,” Chanyeol says quietly. He leads Baekhyun up a set of small back stairs. Baekhyun notes the rear garden from the small windows in the stairway. They walk down the upper hall past several rooms and a sitting room and Baekhyun notes that oddly there is no furniture in the upstairs rooms. Instead a few framed family photos sit on the floor of the hallway in a sad huddle like they are trying to avoid being stepped on. 

“This is my room,” Chanyeol says in front of the furthest door. “Let’s just stay here for a while. They’ll stop when they get tired.” Baekhyun acknowledges him with a nod, walks into Chanyeol’s room and stands holding the package of food. Her forearms are burning from holding it for so long, but she doesn’t know what to do with it. 

“Here, let me take that,” Chanyeol says as he takes the package from Baekhyun and lays it down nearby. He slips Baekhyun’s coat from her shoulders and hangs it in the closet. She came to take care of him, but Baekhyun feels like it’s Chanyeol taking care of her. She looks around the large room and there is no bed, only a small table with books, his laptop, and a small lamp which Chanyeol turns on. It sets a low warm glow over the room. Chanyeol’s guitar is in the corner on it’s stand. A pile of bedding is neatly folded to the side and next to it propped against the wall is a unframed photo of Baekhyun along with an alarm clock. Baekhyun stares at her photo placed so intimately in his space. She’s never seen that photo before and doesn’t even remember taking it.

“Have you eaten? Are you hungry?” Baekhyun ask.

“No, I haven’t eaten.”

Baekhyun takes the neatly wrapped package of food and motions for Chanyeol to sit with her. She lays the wrapping cloth on the ground between them and carefully lays out the covered dishes of food she had prepared with Kyungsoo’s help. 

“This is for your parents,” Baekhyun says laying a smaller wrapped package to the side. “You get the porridge. I made it myself and it was hard so you have to eat it all.” She finishes wiping the spoon clean and hands it to Chanyeol. “Eat Channie, eat well.” A little hesitantly she moves his bangs from his eyes, then pulls her hand away quickly. “You have to eat so you can be strong. You’re so tall and you need food to stay strong.” Chanyeol watches Baekhyun as she continues rambling while opening the rest of the dishes and wiping off a set of chopsticks. 

“Hmm,” he responds and takes a spoon of porridge. It’s warm and savory, and Chanyeol is surprised. He didn’t know Baekhyun could make anything except mixed drinks. Baekhyun is still fidgeting with the side dishes.

“Here Baek,” Chanyeol says holding a full spoon of porridge up to Baek’s lips. “Have some. I don’t like eating alone.” Baekhyun hesitates, but then takes the spoon. She only brought one spoon and one set of chopsticks. “Kimchi,” Chanyeol pouts towards thekimchi Baek is poking with the chopsticks so she feeds him a piece.

They finish their meal like that, Chanyeol spooning the porridge between them and Baekhyun splitting the side dishes. 

“Thank you Baek,” Chanyeol says once their meal is finished and Baekhyun cleans up their makeshift setting. She only smiles back at him. “Now for dessert,” Chanyeol says. 

“I didn’t bring anything,” Baek wonders as Chanyeol rummages through his closet.

Chanyeol and Baek move to the small balcony outside the window of Chanyeol’s room. It’s more like landing for a fire escape than an actual balcony, but it’s big enough for each of them to sit on either side of the window leaning against the brick of the house. 

“Who drinks soju with porridge?” Baekhyun wonders quietly.

“Lonely desperate people,” Chanyeol smiles back.

“Chanyeol...how can you joke at a time like this?”

“What then Baek? Huh? Should I be pitiful and cry poor me? I’ve been rich my whole life and now I have nothing? Aww, poor pitiful Chanyeol?” Chanyeol’s voice is breaking, but he’s smiling and downing his soju. He speaks like he’s questioning himself rather than Baekhyun. 

Chanyeol lays his shot glass between them and Baekhyun obliges him without hesitation. She pours him another shot and it spills over the edge onto Chanyeol’s fingers. He licks off his fingers and winks at Baek smiling sadly as he drinks his shot back. Baek pours herself a shot and sips it while they look out over the rear garden. She focuses on the garden trying to memorize the layout...f _lowering trees by the brook. They are large and heavy leaning towards the water. Do they freeze in the winter with the water? Do the fish survive till springtime?_ She keeps her eyes trained on the garden. Chanyeol wouldn’t want her to see him crying, but she can’t pretend not to hear him. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago. I figure might as well share it since it's just been sitting around on my computer. It's part of a larger ot9 story I planned on writing, but I only wrote a few parts. Let me know if you are interested and I'll post some more.


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